How billions of dollars and cutting-edge tech are revolutionizing ocean exploration

Sperm whales can hold their breath for up to an hour and dive more than a mile below the surface.
OceanX scientists are interested in how these marine mammals hunt in such deep waters.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN SKERRY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

From National Geographic by Annie Roth

What lurks beneath the waves? State-of-the-art robots, ships, and submersibles are helping a new generation of explorers finally understand the most mysterious habitat on Earth.

On a warm June morning, a 286-foot private research vessel set off from the green and rocky sea cliffs of the Azores, a chain of islands jutting upward from the North Atlantic Ocean, about a thousand miles west of mainland Portugal.
The gleaming white OceanXplorer, rising high above the water, resembled a modified superyacht, with a helicopter pad on the bow and a pair of yellow submersibles near the stern.
Below the surface, the ship’s hull featured a high-resolution sonar array to map underwater terrain.

The OceanXplorer had embarked on a unique mission: to tag and retrieve data from bluntnose sixgill sharks in their natural environment, an area so deep that much of their behavior remains a mystery.
These prehistoric predators, whose ancestors first appeared 200 million years ago, can grow up to 18 feet long.
They’re concealed within the ocean’s mesopelagic layer, or “twilight zone”—a frigid region reaching 3,000 feet down that’s nearly devoid of light.
Still, each evening, the slow-moving yet buoyant sixgills here make a three-hour journey up to shallower waters to feed at a known hunting spot on the ledge of an undersea mountain near the Azores.

OceanXplorer is a vessel with a helicopter, submersibles, and small boats for research missions.
Here, deck safety officer Derek McQuigg operates a small craft in Sognefjorden, Norway’s longest and deepest fjord.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TAJ HOWE, OCEANX


A submersible launched from the OceanXplorer illuminates seafloor terrain in the Red Sea.
Underwater geologic features are difficult to explore, but submersible and ROV technology allows scientists to study them up close.
VIDEO STILL: OCEANX


OceanX scientists, including Melissa Márquez, attempt to attach a camera tag to a sixgill shark from a submersible at a depth of more than 800 feet.
They journeyed so deep hoping to capture the shark’s natural behavior.
VIDEO STILL: OCEANX

On board were nearly 70 crew members, including shark biologist Melissa Márquez, who grew up in Mexico; deep-sea researcher Zoleka Filander, a South African ecologist who has discovered several new species of invertebrates; ocean technology inventor Eric Stackpole, a NASA veteran who co-founded an underwater robotics company; and two guest scientists from Portugal’s University of the Azores, Jorge Fontes and Pedro Afonso, who had developed a tag that tracks sharks and provides video.

The team hoped to locate at least one sixgill, attach a camera tag to it, and then retrieve the tag later—something never accomplished before in the deep sea.
It would require a series of dives in one of the onboard “bubble subs”— so called because of the acrylic globe that houses passengers.
Even then, they would get only a glimpse into this hidden world; the tag would automatically release after 12 hours and float to the surface for recovery.
Recovering the data, however, would mark a scientific first, yet another in a series for the team, which works with the nonprofit initiative OceanX.
Over the past few years, its researchers have taken dramatic footage of orcashunting humpback whales and separately made audio recordings of how male humpbacks might use undersea terrain to amplify their mating songs.
They have also captured rare footage of the Dana octopus squid in its natural habitat.

If such moments sound particularly entertaining—sharks! whales!—that was by design.
The OceanXplorer is the flagship of OceanX, an exploration and media venture co-founded by Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, and his son Mark, who has previously co-produced shows for National Geographic.
The group launched in 2018 with the stated goal to “explore the ocean and bring it back to the world.” This has involved converting a former Norwegian support vessel for oil rigs into a mobile scientific research center and film set.
OceanX advisers include James Cameron, the Hollywood director of Avatar and Titanic.

A mother humpback whale will stay with her calf for about a year.
The nonprofit OceanX filmed one pair being hunted by orcas and investigated whether the shape of the seafloor amplifies the humpback whale’s song.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN SKERRY, NATGEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Beyond the helicopter and the bubble subs, which can take explorers to 3,280 feet underwater, the vessel also carries a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for filming far deeper, plus its own wet and dry laboratories and a holographic viewing table for researchers to generate seemingly made-for-TV models of the data they collect from the deep ocean.
There are more than 3,000 film-quality light fixtures throughout the boat.
And starting in August, viewers around the world can tune in to see the result of the sixgill expedition, which is part of the National Geographic series OceanXplorers.
“There’s never been a more urgent need to understand our ocean and the animals that call it home,” Cameron narrates in the series.
“Because their lives, and ours, depend on it.”

OceanXplorers is inspired by the work of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle, who together released the film version of Cousteau’s best-selling book The Silent World nearly 70 years ago.
The documentary was among the first underwater films shot in color and sparked worldwide interest in the ocean.
That included Ray Dalio, who was entranced by Cousteau’s work and has shared that enthusiasm with his son.
“How do you create a Cousteau moment for the modern age?” says Mark Dalio.

The modern age could use an updated Silent World.
New technologies are on the cusp of unlocking scientific breakthroughs, but only if they’re funded—which means people need to care and demand action.
Spurring that through a series of six 30-minute-plus episodes might sound a bit far-fetched, but as the footage reveals, each journey can lead to even more surprising discoveries.

Advancements in ocean exploration through the ages

1934: Engineer Otis Barton and naturalist William Beebe dive below 3,000 feet, a human first, in a vessel called a bathysphere off the coast of Bermuda.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIAM BEEBE, NATGEO IMAGE COLLECTION

 

 

1960: Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh are the first to visit Challenger Deep, the lowest region of Earth’s oceans.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

1970: Scuba gear allows scientists like National Geographic Explorer at Large Sylvia Earle to spend hours underwater.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BATES LITTLEHALES, NATGEO IMAGE COLLECTION

 

1977: U.S.
scientists discover hydrothermal vents via an underwater camera and temperature sensor.

To their surprise, life thrived in this sunless environment.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROV SUBASTIAN, SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE

2012: Filmmaker and Explorer James Cameron exceeds the 1960 depth record at Challenger Deep, which was then surpassed by Victor Vescovo in 2019.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK THIESSEN, NATGEO IMAGE COLLECTION

 

2024: Caltech engineers test the potential of bionic jellyfish—live jellies equipped with sensors to record information as they swim.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID LIITTSCHWAGER, NATGEO IMAGE COLLECTION

At around 10:30 p.m., cameras rolled from all angles as the Neptune, one of the OceanXplorer’s three-person bubble subs, dangled from a large crane, suspended over the dark ocean.
Inside, Márquez, the shark biologist, sat near Afonso, a marine ecologist, and a submarine pilot.
Márquez and Afonso had never had the chance to scout for sixgills directly from a sub.
Multiple cameras captured the researchers’ wide-eyed expressions as the submersible dropped into the ocean and quickly disappeared below the surface.

Step one in tagging a sixgill: Conduct a population survey in the area, where the sharks are known to convene at night after spending their days deeper in the ocean.

After Márquez and Afonso descended to a ledge more than 800 feet down, they saw something large moving past their submersible’s headlights.

“Shark, shark, shark!” Márquez called out, looking both excited and a little startled.
“That’s huge.
Adult.
Definitely an adult.
About 15 feet long.”

She could see right away that the animal was female because of the lack of claspers, or sexual organs, under its pelvic fin.

Over the course of eight hours under water, the team spotted 11 sixgills, which had traveled an estimated 1,800 feet upward to look for food.
Each shark seemed to have a different temperament, with some keeping their distance and others swimming directly at, or even right below, the sub.

They were also all female, except for one juvenile male, supporting the idea that the animals may travel in single-sex groups outside of mating season.

None of the potential targets moved quickly.
“She’s so sluggish,” Márquez said as one of the sharks passed by, illuminated by the light of the sub.
“I guess she’s conserving her energy. And it’s cold out there; it’s only 39 degrees.”

The deep sea still has plenty of mysteries to reveal.
It is the largest habitat on Earth, comprising more than 95 percent of the ocean, yet remains the least explored.
At the first ever United Nations Ocean Conference, in 2017, an international coalition of scientists announced its intention of using multibeam sonar to generate a detailed map of the seafloor in its entirety by 2030.

When the initiative was first introduced, only 6 percent of the seabed was mapped to an adequate resolution; that figure now is 25 percent mapped in high resolution, with more terrain being added every day.

That effort may reveal a better understanding of the seafloor, but when it comes to ocean conservation, researchers face the additional challenge of trying to protect an ecosystem that’s still not well surveyed.
The vast majority of species in the ocean—by one estimate, more than 90 percent—have yet to be classified.
Rather than just cataloging discoveries, ocean-exploration entities have also put effort into better relaying the wonder of the unknown.
By 2019, private equity investor Victor Vescovo piloted a submersible to the lowest point of all five ocean basins, setting a record for the deepest crewed dive in history when he reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, at a depth of nearly 36,000 feet.

Great hammerhead sharks (at left and bottom) cruise along the seafloor in the Bahamas.
Scientists are scrambling to learn more about these critically endangered creatures.
The OceanX helicopter crew followed one on a stingray hunt.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHELLE BLAIS, BIMINI SHARK LAB

“We have an ability to see, hear, and sample [the ocean] in ways that we just never had before,” says Chris Scholin, the president and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, a nonprofit oceanographic organization based on California’s central coast.

Submersibles, satellites, drones, ROVs, autonomous underwater vehicles, and undersea observatories are giving scientists and explorers unprecedented access to the ocean.
As a result, scientists are discovering an average of 2,000 new marine species each year.

“It’s amazing what’s happened in the last few years,” says Jyotika Virmani, executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to science and exploration that recently aided discovery of more than a hundred species believed to be new to science during expeditions to a seamount chain off the coast of Chile.
“Things are happening, and they’re happening faster and faster.
There’s been an almost exponential increase in information that we’re getting about the ocean.”

Seamounts, the mysterious mountains of the ocean, are hot spots for life like these green feather stars living on deep-sea coral at 3,000 feet, as seen in recent scientific surveys supported by the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROV SUBASTIAN, SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE




Other marine creatures observed include a bright red member of the sea toad family that can walk on the seafloor at 4,556 feet and the rarely seen whiplash squid at 3,625 feet.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROV SUBASTIAN, SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE

One of OceanX’s goals is to telegraph the vast human health and innovation losses that may occur if important species disappear before we can learn more about them.
“The ocean is just a huge library of DNA that can be exploited by humans for medical purposes, manufacturing—all kinds of things,” says Vincent Pieribone, OceanX’s co-CEO and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
Compounds from marine life are actively being investigated for their potential as antibiotic and antiviral medications and even for components of artificial bone.

The majority of the narrative being shared right now is “the obituary of the ocean,” says Philippe Cousteau, Jr., a filmmaker, explorer, and grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
“I think that has held back capturing the public’s imagination.”

After confirming the underwater ledge was a feeding spot for sixgills, the team decided it was ready to tag a shark.
Around midnight on another evening, the Neptune shuttled Márquez and marine ecologist Fontes back to the ledge, passing through a shoal of boarfish so dense it temporarily obstructed the bubble sub’s view.

This time, decaying fish had been secured to an extended metal rod, which projected several feet in front of the submersible to entice a sixgill.
“Come on, Big Mama,” Márquez said, as if willing a shark to appear.

When the first sixgill arrived, it ignored the bait, focusing instead on a morsel that had become detached and floated to the bottom, and stayed out of range.
Some time later, two more sharks appeared, with the larger one chasing off the smaller, probably to protect the new food source.
At a certain point, one creature’s large, trapezoidal tail knocked the sub with an audible thump, startling everyone behind the six-and-a-half-inch acrylic hull.

The Neptune was outfitted with a laser-sighted spear gun that could fire a kind of arrow into the skin of the sixgill.
Connected to the arrow was the tracker—a small, red, hard-foam package that housed a camera and other sensors capable of monitoring the animal’s speed, depth, and movements for up to 12 hours.

When the larger of the two sharks came into view, Fontes pressed a button to fire the arrow, but it shot wide, narrowly missing the moving target.

“Damn it,” he said.

Márquez grabbed her head.
“I can’t believe it,” she said, before signaling that another shark was approaching.
With only one arrow left, the pressure was on.
This time, Fontes was able to hit the animal’s large torso.
Up in the OceanXplorer’s mission control room, Stackpole, the underwater robotics technician, and Afonso watched with excitement and gave each other a high five.

Mystery lurks beneath the waves.
Greenland sharks can live for centuries, but little is known about how they hunt and survive in deep, cold Arctic waters.
The OceanX crew tagged one to measure its movements.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIO TADINAC, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Sixgills likely haven’t changed much in 200 million years and retain features from the Jurassic age.
When the tagged shark reapproached Neptune to finish its meal, cameras captured its eyes rolling back into its head as it shook the bait.
Unlike many sharks, sixgills don’t have a retractable membrane to protect the eye while hunting; instead their eyes just … roll back.
For the crew, it was a visceral reminder of how different these animals are.

Because sixgills are especially buoyant, one working hypothesis for how these sharks hunt has been that they may float upward along ridgelines in the ocean, seeking silhouettes from potential prey that they can ambush.

While the show focused on the red camera tag, it was accompanied by another, more basic satellite tag that could transmit movement data for an additional nine months, allowing the researchers to continue to learn more about the species’ vertical migrations.
Such underwater monitoring is important: Although scientists can catch deep-sea sharks with nets or hooks and pull them to the surface, being dragged from the deep can cause potentially fatal pressurization injuries for the creatures.
Stressed animals don’t make great study subjects either, which is why scientists at OceanX want to tag them in their environment.

Once reviewed at the mission control room, the data retrieved from the tracker appeared to support the thesis about the sixgill’s hunting method.
The shark would travel slowly, with short upward bursts of speed that might signal it was ambushing prey from below.

OceanX missions aren’t all focused on thrashing sharks and whales.
Often they pursue the more prosaic business of mapping.
While the OceanXplorer tracks sharks and films whales, the vessel is also using its own sonar array to add to the growing body of data about the seafloor.
In 2019 OceanX conducted an end-to-end survey of the largest coral reef system alongside the continental United States.
It also conducted yet another voyage off the Azores, in 2023, producing yet more findings on underwater seamounts and ridges to support the designation of 30 percent of the region’s economic zone waters as marine protected areas.
Scientists working with OceanX have contributed to nearly a hundred research papers, on topics ranging from coral-dwelling crabs to microbial life around hydrothermal vents.

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever,” Jacques-Yves Cousteau wrote.
At a time when the public’s increasingly short attention span may make it harder to digest complicated information, OceanX is trying to perpetuate that spell.

Dalio, the nonprofit’s co-founder, says he wants OceanXplorers “to be a launch, not just of a series but of a new awareness and excitement about the ocean,” adding he wants to “create a wave” that gets others involved and working together.
If that can happen, he says, “we really are on the brink of a golden age for ocean exploration.”

What its scientists share with the public seems to be getting attention: OceanX has more than four million followers on TikTok.

OceanX science program director Mattie Rodrigue examines a sample on one of the ship’s high-power microscopes.
State-of- the-art labs like this one seek to narrow vast knowledge gaps in marine science.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDY MANN, OCEANX

During another dive in the sub, Márquez and Afonso witnessed a large sixgill skim close to the floor of the ledge.
This might be attributed to the animal’s use of highly attuned electrical sensors in its head to detect movements of other creatures in the murk.
But instead of seeing the feeding method their data suggested, what happened next was different.
The creature quickly inverted, swinging its tail vertically above its head before swinging it back and forth to seemingly pin something against the seafloor.
It could have been a ray hiding under the sand.

Back on the OceanXplorer, Márquez and the team talked over just how much that moment defied their expectations.
Rather than proving one version right or wrong, the truth is more exciting: The sixgill may have different hunting tactics it can deploy.

“The data from the tag was telling us one thing,” said Márquez, “but our own eyes are telling us something completely different.” It’s an unexpected finding and a reminder of just how much remains unknown.

OceanXplorers will premiere Aug.
18 on National Geographic and all episodes will stream Aug.
19 on Disney+ and Hulu.

At dusk one day, the sun lit up the rocky cliffs of the Azores, and the OceanXplorer steered onward, the large vessel backlit by the dimming light that reflected across the vast ocean around it.
Eventually, the ship would head back to port to refuel and start another mission, bringing on another group of local scientists to study the deep.

As the ship moved ahead, it looked small against the backdrop of the ocean, which stretched so far that it blended into the glittering horizon line.
Almost every day at sea features a moment like this, when, with the right perspective, the enormous vessel suddenly looks small.
When you zoom out, there’s always more ocean.

 

Links :

• NatGeo : The story of Turtle, one of the world's first submersibles / Watch the first episode of our newest series 'OceanXplorers' here /  This scientist is on a mission to map the world’s oceans / Beyond the Western myth of exploration lies a rich and often overlooked history.

I was captain of a navy ship like Manawanui that just sank. Mine almost sank too

The HMNZS Manawanui ran aground while surveying a reef south of Samoa late on Saturday.

Profile Boats / Supplied

From Press reader & StuffNZ

Commander Tom Sharpe OBE is a former Royal Navy officer.
He captained four different British warships, including HMS Endurance, the navy’s ice patrol ship.

courtesy of MarineTraffic

 

WS400211 ENC : Samoa - Apolima Strait

Scale : 45000 / Cat : 4 / Type : Approach
Edition_date : 20221224 / Edition : 1

 

WS504125 ENC : South Pacific Ocean - Samoa - Safata Harbour and Siumu Bay
Scale : 22000 / Cat : 5 / Type : Harbor
Edition_date : 20220616 / Edition : 1 

 

Over the weekend, the Royal New Zealand Navy’s hydrographic, diving and salvage ship, HMNZS Manawanui, ran aground off the southern coast of Samoa.
All 75 of the ship’s company abandoned ship safely and only minor injuries are reported.
She then listed heavily, caught fire and, some 11 hours later, sank.

Rare image of the HMNZS Manawanui afloat.

Photo: NZDF

 

As the commanding officer of the last Royal Navy ship to nearly sink – that was HMS Endurance – I have views.
I’m giving them here partly to inform, but partly also to correct some of the narratives and commentary that have emerged following the incident, many of which appear to have their basis in misogyny rather than hard-earned sea time.

 

 

Naval Divers on the scene above HMNZS Manawanui, off the southern coast Of Upulo.

 

There are only a few ways a ship can run aground.
First, you don’t know where you are on the chart through human or system-induced navigational error (e.g. HMS Nottingham, 2002).
Second, you do know but the chart is wrong (HMS Brocklesby, Burntisland noise range, 1997).
Third, you know where you are and the chart information is correct but conditions (wind, tide etc) overwhelm your ability to hold position (ferry Pride of Portsmouth collision with HMS St Albans, Portsmouth Dockyard, 2002).
Fourth, you suffer an engineering defect and the subsequent loss of control sees you run aground (MV Ever Given; MV Dali).
For completeness, we should include showboating (Costa Concordia, Giglio, 2012) and deliberately grounding to save the ship from sinking (MSC Napoli, English Channel, 2007).

■ New Zealand Navy Ship HMNZS Manawanui Sinks After Running Aground Near Samoa.

The HMNZS Manawanui, a New Zealand Navy vessel, sank this morning after running aground on a reef near the southern coast of Upolu, Samoa, last night and catching fire. #Oceania pic.twitter.com/LOk91fJz06

— News Of The Globe (@NewsOfEarthTr) October 5, 2024

 

All initial indications in the case of Manawanui point to a loss of propulsion/control as the primary cause.
This has been half confirmed by New Zealand Defence Minister Judith Collins, who said: “We need to find out what happened, apparently it lost power, I’m aware of that, and ended up aground on the reef.”

The photos of Manawanui before she sank shows she had Restricted in Ability to Manoeuvre (RAM) shapes hoisted – a signal to other ships.
The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea says a RAM vessel is one which, “due to the nature of her work, is restricted in her ability to deviate from her course.
These vessels include but are not limited to: vessels engaged in dredging, surveying, or underwater operations.”

In other words, when the machinery failure happened, Manawanui was probably operating in navigationally tight waters, likely surveying an area whose charting information was dated and therefore inaccurate.
Incidentally, surveying uncharted or poorly charted waters in South Georgia and Antarctica in HMS Endurance involved some of the most difficult ship manoeuvring I did in 20 years at sea.

Technically, once power was lost, Manawanui would have ceased to be RAM and would instead become Not Under Command (NUC), requiring a different signal hoist, before becoming Aground, requiring yet a third signal.
However the crew probably had other priorities than flying the technically correct day shapes.

The lead up to the grounding would have been tense.
Assuming there was a loss of power, the bridge team would have known very quickly how long they had before they would run aground (assuming the chart data wasn’t way out).
“What’s failed”, “can we recover it” and “what are our reversionary options” would have been the conversations flying between the bridge and the engineering team.
I can’t tell from the photos if an anchor was dropped – this would be a natural reaction to try and prevent a ship which had lost power from going aground but it doesn’t work in every situation.
In Endurance the anchors saved us in the end, but we drifted a long way before they took hold.

HMNZS Manawanui commanding officer, Commander Yvonne Gray

New Zealand Defence Force

The grounding of Manawanui would have been horrific, with a lot of noise, the lurching and grinding of the ship on the reef and alarms sounding on the bridge.
Those from my ship’s company in 2008 who ran into the engine room of HMS Endurance to try to control the water flooding into it will never forget those moments.
It would have been the same here.
The damage control officer takes reports from the damage control parties so they can track the amount of water coming in and whether or not it can be stopped or contained.
The ship’s marine engineering officer works alongside this, looking for ways to manage the water ingress whilst calculating the changing stability condition of the ship.

Vessels like Manawanui and Endurance, both originally designed for commercial service, are intrinsically less survivable than combatant warships: they’re not built specifically to take damage and keep on functioning.
The ship’s captain – Commander Yvonne Gray in Manawanui, a former Royal Navy officer – has to process all this information and make the big calls.
At some point, she would have looked the engineer in the eye and said, “are we going to make this?” The answer would have been the worst thing you can hear at sea, and she probably already knew it.

Then she made the call to abandon ship.
This is brave no matter how you got there.
Every second of your training for the past 20 or so years has been about keeping the ship going, ultimately in the face of an enemy.
Repair the damage, recover the systems and keep fighting, or at least get away to fight another day.
In Endurance back in 2008, at different stages of the crisis, abandoning ship was definitely on the cards.
I found the idea of abandoning ship so uncomfortable, the team I sent to plan how we would do it were forbidden from saying the words – this was part superstition and part not wanting the phrase to be overheard, which could have led to trouble.
Commander Gray would not have had the luxury of time for any of this.

The act of abandoning is perilous itself.
Most evacuation systems only work up to a certain sea state.
Then do it in the dark, in terrible weather and into rubber lifeboats with no engines, surrounded by the very reefs that you’ve just struck and the Manawanui’s company did well to not have any major injuries or fatalities.

 

The rescue operation after the HMNZS Manawanui ran aground while surveying a reef south of Samoa.

Samoa Fire and Emergency Services Authority

When the captain disembarks during all this is the subject of much conjecture and folklore.

Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, for example, refused to abandon ship in 1893 as HMS Victoria sank beneath him following a collision caused by his orders.
Choosing to die whilst repeatedly saying, “it was all my fault” is a good example of the noble stubbornness that was common at the time.
It’s ironic that these traits were largely responsible for the collision happening in the first place.

Other captains have chosen to go down with their ship, but not that many.
It’s generally thought, however, that if it’s practical the captain should be the last person off.
The captain certainly shouldn’t be first or early off.
No one will forgive the captain of the Costa Concordia for deliberately imperilling his ship and then abandoning it with hundreds of passengers still onboard.
Saying it’s because you “fell into a lifeboat” and decided to “coordinate from there” and ignoring the Coast Guard telling you to get back onboard and sort your life out is not a good look.

In my case, if we had abandoned the Endurance, I would have stayed back with a small deck crew because a cruise liner was going to reach us around the time we were due to hit the rocks and I wanted last-ditch options to take a line and be hauled off.
Keeping five people back to at least try this was, in my judgement, worth the personal risk.
I wasn’t doing an Admiral Tryon; just managing the situation.
Staying on board to die is daft and of another era.

In the case of the Manawanui, it seems that Commander Gray made an early and brave call based on the inevitability of the situation, and then managed the evacuation well.

Now there will be a series of investigations during which culpability, responsibility and credit will be determined.

Crew members from HMNZS Manawanui arrive at RNZAF Base Auckland after being flown back from Samoa.

New Zealand Defence Force

They will establish how the ship lost control at this critical and dangerous point but tight navigational conditions, poor chart information and bad weather will almost certainly feature.
It will be decided, given those last three, whether or not this task should have been conducted just then at all.
Some of my best decisions at sea involved tearing up the programme (which there can be significant pressure to achieve), waiting for the weather to improve, or daylight, and then restarting.
Suddenly everything is easier and recovering the rest of your programme is never as hard as you thought it would be.

But these are only the precipitating causes.
Accidents of this magnitude are rarely black swan events; there is normally a tail of deeper causes.

For example, navies don’t operate commercially-designed ships well.
We overcrew them and then overcomplicate the maintenance.
We often run them too hard, as if they were built with the resilience of combatant warships.
We tend to conduct endless machinery drills, needlessly overstressing the kit, ‘because that’s what we do’.
Even combatant warships can be seriously damaged by overenthusiastic drills, for instance ones which involve suddenly cutting off electrical power.
Ships are designed to run a certain way and if you exceed or alter that, over time problems mount up.
This is what happened to HMS Endurance and I’d be surprised if there weren’t similar factors in play with the Manawanui.

The prevailing leadership and culture onboard will also be examined.
Actions post-incident will be dissected and lessons passed on to the rest of the fleet.
For Manawanui’s captain, I have no idea how this will play out.
Certainly in the Royal Navy, the line between an OBE and disgrace is a fine one.
For the ship’s company, there will likewise be decorations for those who excelled during the incident – there are always a few – and possibly punishment for others.
When a ship goes aground, the captain bears ultimate responsibility but the ship’s navigating officer and the officer of the watch at the time also have questions to answer.

Investigations will extend beyond the ship.
How hard was she and the rest of the navy being worked in the run-up to this grounding? Both the US Navy and the Royal Navy are seeing an increase in incidents caused by trying to do the same tasks with fewer ships and people.
Fatigue is everywhere – both human and material.

Is the New Zealand navy, now reduced to five operational ships, suffering from the same? Is it big enough in the first place? This paper suggested only recently that the answer is ‘no’.
In which case, what is the right number of ships for New Zealand and how do they now compensate for the loss of one? All of these will need to be addressed as well what to do with the sunken ship to minimise environmental damage and maybe even salvage her.

Hopefully this gives an idea of what might have happened last weekend whilst highlighting the complexity and risk navies take every day in the interests of defending their respective countries.
Those who have leapt to question the competence of the captain, often it seems based on her gender or sexuality, should take a breather.

Personally, I will be raising a glass to 75 sailors who for a few hours, miles from help, would have wondered if they had seen their last sunset – but hadn’t.

 

Links :

• BBC : New Zealand loses first naval ship to sea since WW2 / New Zealand minister criticises trolling of sunk ship's female captain
• The Guardian : New Zealand navy ship Manawanui sinks off Samoa
• CNN : New Zealand loses first naval ship since WWII; vessel threatening oil spill off Samoan coast 
• WP : New Zealand navy ship sinks, prompting environmental concerns 
• Maritime Executive :  New Zealand Navy Survey Vessel Runs Aground and Sinks Off Samoa
• Forces News : 'Armchair admirals' blasted for comments on female captain's gender after ship sinking
• Naval tech : New Zealand’s HMNZS Manawanui capsizes after running aground
• SamoaObserver : Manawanui sinking: Fish covered in oil, huge leak confirmed
• NZ Herald : Manawanui fuel leak ‘not significant’
• RNZ : Manawanui sinking: 'Things can be done if we throw enough money at it' - salvage expert 
• The Post : HMNZS Manawanui: Navy divers confirm sunken ship spilling oil into sea
• The Conversation : Manawanui sinking: an expert explains why a speedy cleanup will be crucial – and the main challenges ahead 
• Business Insider : $63 million Royal New Zealand Navy ship capsizes and sinks off Samoa
• NewsRoom : The Secret Diary of .. the HMNZS Manawanui 

British Isles & misc. (UKHO) layer update in the GeoGarage platform

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Geoscientists discover mysterious subduction zone beneath Pacific Ocean

A map of the East Pacific Rise region where the discovery of an ancient seafloor was made. 

Image credit: Jingchuan Wang.

From SCI New

 

During the Mesozoic era, between 250 and 120 million years ago, an ancient seafloor sank deep into Earth in the East Pacific Rise, a tectonic plate boundary on the floor of the southeastern Pacific Ocean, says a team of geoscientists from the University of Maryland and the University of Alberta.

University of Maryland researcher Jingchuan Wang and colleagues used innovative seismic imaging techniques to peer deep into Earth’s mantle, the layer between our planet’s crust and core.

They found an unusually thick area in the mantle transition zone, a region located between about 410 and 660 km below the Earth’s surface.

The zone separates the upper and lower mantles, expanding or contracting based on temperature.

The newly-discovered seafloor may also explain the anomalous structure of the Pacific Large Low Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP) — a massive region in Earth’s lower mantle — as the LLSVP appears to be split by the slab.

“This thickened area is like a fossilized fingerprint of an ancient piece of seafloor that subducted into the Earth approximately 250 million years ago,” Dr. Wang said.
“It’s giving us a glimpse into Earth’s past that we’ve never had before.”

Subduction occurs when one tectonic plate slides beneath another, recycling surface material back into Earth’s mantle.

Topography and tectonics of the SEPR and its surrounding oceans.

 
The process often leaves visible evidence of movement, including volcanoes, earthquakes and deep marine trenches.

While geologists typically study subduction by examining rock samples and sediments found on Earth’s surface.

By examining how seismic waves traveled through different layers of Earth, the researchers were able to create detailed mappings of the structures hiding deep within the mantle.
“You can think of seismic imaging as something similar to a CT scan. It’s basically allowed us to have a cross-sectional view of our planet’s insides,” Dr. Wang said.
“Usually, oceanic slabs of material are consumed by the Earth completely, leaving no discernible traces on the surface.”
“But seeing the ancient subduction slab through this perspective gave us new insights into the relationship between very deep Earth structures and surface geology, which were not obvious before.”

What the authors found surprised them: material was moving through Earth’s interior much more slowly than previously thought.

The unusual thickness of the area they discovered suggests the presence of colder material in this part of the mantle transition zone, hinting that some oceanic slabs get stuck halfway down as they sink through the mantle.
“We found that in this region, the material was sinking at about half the speed we expected, which suggests that the mantle transition zone can act like a barrier and slow down the movement of material through the Earth,” Dr. Wang said.
“Our discovery opens up new questions about how the deep Earth influences what we see on the surface across vast distances and timescales.”

The results were published in the journal Science Advances.

Links :

• Earth : Mysterious megastructure found under the seafloor rewrites Earth's history
• SciTechDaily : Discovery of Mysterious Ancient Sunken Seafloor Could Rewrite Earth’s History

See 15 stunning images from the ocean photographer of the year awards

This rare leucistic green sea turtle was discovered among nests, supported by local conservation efforts, in Papua New Guinea’s Conflict Islands.

Jake Wilton

From Smithsonian by Samuel Sanders

The winning and highly commended underwater photography spotlights breathtaking animal behavior, conservation needs and the otherworldly environment of Earth’s oceans

The vastness of the ocean evokes both wonder and mystery.
And for centuries, photographers have been trying to capture its essence.
Since the first underwater photography began in 1856, technology has evolved to allow divers to take breathtaking images that bring to life this unique ecosystem.

The Ocean Photographer of the Year Contest, presented by Oceanographic Magazine and Blancpain, channels the passion of ocean photographers into a yearly competition.
The contest has a simple mission: “To shine a light on the wonder and fragility of our blue planet and celebrate the photographers giving it a voice.”

This year, photographers from around the globe submitted more than 15,000 coastal, drone and underwater images to the contest.
The shots fell into seven categories: wildlife, fine art, adventure, conservation impact, conservation hope, human connection and young photographer.
The competition awards an overall winner—the Ocean Photographer of the Year—in addition to category winners, the Ocean Portfolio Award honoring a photographer’s collection of work and the Female Fifty Fathom Award, which celebrates a boundary-pushing woman in ocean photography.

Winners of the 2024 contest were announced September 12, and the recognized photographs include dramatic wildlife encounters, beautiful examples of humans’ connection with the ocean and stark reminders of society’s impact on the marine environment.
The image winners will go on exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Australia, on November 28, followed by several yet-to-be-announced venues in early 2025.

Below are the stunning images awarded in this year’s contest, as well as a selection of finalists that also wowed the judges.

Overall Winner, Rafael Fernández Caballero

 

 

A Bryde’s whale opens its mouth, about to devour a heart-shaped bait ball in Baja California Sur, Mexico. 

Rafael Fernández Caballero

The overall winning image shows a Bryde’s whale about to devour a bait ball—a last-ditch defensive measure that occurs when fish swarm together and pack tightly, typically performed by small schooling fish when they feel threatened by predators.

In the photo, light shines through the water.
Research suggests Bryde’s whales spend most of the day within 50 feet of the water’s surface.
While this school of fish may seem like a hearty snack, Bryde’s whales eat an estimated 1,320 to 1,450 pounds of food daily—so this whale likely fed again shortly after.

“The image captures perhaps the most special—and craziest—moment of my life,” says photographer Rafael Fernández Caballero in a statement.
“It fills me with joy having lived this moment—and to have captured the image.”

Female Fifty Fathoms Award Winner, Ipah Uid Lynn

 

 

A tiny goby perches on a delicate sea whip, surrounded by colors at Romblon Island in the Philippines.
Ipah Uid Lynn

Ipah Uid Lynn, a Malaysian photographer, took home the Female Fifty Fathoms Award with her body of work that featured this colorful image of a goby.
This award works differently than the others.
Instead of submitting photos, the recipient is nominated by her peers and judged by a special panel.

“It’s a recognition that goes beyond personal achievement,” Lynn says in a statement.
“It highlights the importance of storytelling through photography and the voices of women in this field.”

This vibrant photograph highlights the beauty of small creatures in the ocean.
It depicts a goby resting on a sea whip, a type of soft coral.
Sea whips can grow to two feet in total height, making this a spectacular close-up capture.

Portfolio Award Winner, Shane Gross

 

Baby plainfin midshipman fish, still attached to their yolk sacs. 

Shane Gross

Canadian photographer Shane Gross encountered this group of baby plainfin midshipman fish still attached to their yolk sacs in British Columbia, Canada.
For these fish, it’s the males that provide parental care.
While the plainfin midshipman is known to be a deep-sea marine fish, it transcends habitats during the breeding season in summer and migrates to the fluctuating intertidal zone.
As the tide moves in and out, the fish face changing temperatures and oxygen levels.
While the fish might swim in comfortable cold water in the morning, their rocks could be completely exposed to air in the afternoon.

Despite this stressful environment, the male midshipman remains to care for his young.
The babies “are guarded over by their father until they are big enough to swim … to ocean depths,” Gross says in a statement.

Human Connection Winner, Zhang Xiang

 

 

A beach reflects the golden haze of the sunset while a traditional fisher wades through the water in Fujian, China. 

Zhang Xiang

A traditional Chinese fisher traverses a beach as the sunset’s golden haze is reflected by the sand and water.
China is the world’s largest seafood producer and exporter, accounting for about 35 percent of global production.
The sea around China contains 3,000 marine species, of which more than 100 are fished commercially, including mackerel, anchovy, shrimp and crab.

Here, the beauty of the landscape brings another economic value to the area in Fujian province.
“The gorgeous sight attracts many tourists, bringing income to local people,” photographer Zhang Xiang says in a statement.

Adventure Winner, Tobias Friedrich

 

A scuba diver is dwarfed by a shipwreck in the Bahamas. 

 Tobias Friedrich

The photo above was a surprise find for German photographer Tobias Friedrich.
“We were on a liveaboard cruise to take underwater images of tiger and hammerhead sharks,” he says in a statement.
“But due to bad weather conditions, we had to seek shelter and look for alternative dive sites.
We decided to dive on this wreck … At that time, the sand under the bow was washed out, which made it an excellent photographic opportunity.”

The region surrounding the Grand Bahama has 176 shipwrecks, according to an analysis of historical records done last year.
The ship pictured above was intentionally sunken by a dive center.
Known as scuttling, this practice of purposefully sinking ships has grown; it can produce dive training sites and increase revenue options for dive centers.
However, some scuttling has also been done for ecological reasons, helping to create new artificial reef sites for fish.

Conservation (Hope) Winner, Shane Gross

 

 

A green sea turtle is released by a researcher after being accidentally captured while trying to catch sharks. 

Shane Gross

This green sea turtle was accidentally caught by researchers when they were trying to find sharks.
Here, the creature is returned to the ocean after a researcher untangled it from the net, took measurements and tagged the turtle for conservation purposes.

Tagging an animal is a crucial way for scientists understand and learn about its species.
The practice could help researchers understand migratory patterns, lifespan and how the species spends time.
Shane Gross, who snapped the photo, remarks on the future of the tagged green sea turtle: “She is now an ambassador for her species.”

The green sea turtle is the largest hard-shelled sea turtle.
As herbivores, the animals’ diet of seagrasses and algae gives their fat a greenish color.
Green sea turtles can be found worldwide, nesting in more than 80 countries and swimming in the coastal areas of more than 140 countries.

Conservation (Impact) Winner, Frederik Brogaard

 

 

A fin whale, the second-biggest whale species on Earth, at a whaling plant in Iceland.

Frederik Brogaard

For the 2024 hunting season, Iceland made the controversial decision to distribute a license to a whaling company for the hunting of fin whales.
Above, a dead fin whale waits to get butchered at a whaling plant before being sent to Japan.

“The picture might induce a feeling of hopelessness, but public uproar throughout the last two years has resulted in the cancellation of last year’s whaling season in Iceland.
Unfortunately, a whaling quota was again issued this year,” says Frederik Brogaard, the Denmark-based photographer who captured this image, in a statement.
“I hope this picture raises awareness and serves as an inspiration to keep the public pressure on.
These whales are crucial in our fight against climate change, sequestering tonnes of CO2 in their lifetime, and are worth more to us alive than dead.”

Young Ocean Photographer Winner, Jacob Guy

 

 

An elusive algae octopus shows off its fluorescence under ultraviolet light in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Jacob Guy

The algae octopus is elusive.
“Normally coming out to hunt at dusk, with incredible camouflage, these creatures blend seamlessly into the reef—until they are viewed under a different light,” says photographer Jacob Guy of the United Kingdom in a statement.
He spotted this individual off of North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
“On my last dive of the trip, I got lucky and found one of these beautiful creatures on the hunt for a meal and managed to capture the intense look from its yellow eyes.”

Under ultraviolet light, the algae octopus has an uncommon ability—it glowswith fluorescence, absorbing the light to emit it at visible wavelengths.
But in its resting camouflage state, the animal looks like a shell overgrown with algae—which is how it gets its name.
When an algae octopus is hungry, you may find it in an unexpected place: on land.
It can move between tidal pools on a beach when hunting for crabs.

 

Fine Art Winner, Henley Spiers

 

Juvenile Munk’s devil rays are attracted by a green light on a boat, seemingly flying through the water in the Sea of Cortez, Baja California Sur, Mexico. 

Henley Spiers

Munk’s devil rays, like the ones above, are found in tropical oceanic waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Munk’s devil rays are quite acrobatic.
They can leap out of the water, either alone or in groups, performing vertical jumps and somersaults.
They mainly feed on opossum shrimp and zooplankton but can also eat small fish.
The rays are known to form enormous congregations when feeding, resting or—in at least one instance—mating.

Henley Spiers of the U.K.
describes in a statement how he captured the photo: “At night, we hung a green light from the back of our boat.
As plankton gathered around it, the mobula rays gratefully swooped in for a microscopic buffet.
The rays seem to fly through the water as they pursue their dinner.
Entranced by their glance, I used a two-second exposure to capture their movements, which, to my eye, felt like an aquatic ballet.”

Wildlife Winner, Manuel Castellanos Raboso

 

 

A mahi-mahi, also called a common dolphinfish, proudly displays its catch amidst a feeding frenzy.
Manuel Castellanos Raboso

A sunlit mahi-mahi enjoys its catch from the bait ball behind it in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
The large fish, which can grow to seven feet long, eat a variety of species, including small pelagic fish, juvenile tuna and invertebrates.
Mahi-mahi can reproduce at a relatively young age, as early as four to five months old, and their productivity is one reason why scientists assume the mahi-mahi population is stable.

“Its vibrant yellow and green hues shimmer brilliantly under the refracted sunlight against the stunning blue of the Pacific Ocean,” Spanish photographer Manuel Castellanos Raboso says in a statement.
“[The mahi-mahi were] moving like torpedoes in front of us.
This scene captures the hunt and the energy of the Baja’s marine life.”

Finalist, Jake Wilton

 

 

This rare leucistic green sea turtle was discovered among nests, supported by local conservation efforts, in Papua New Guinea’s Conflict Islands. 

Jake Wilton

Typical sea turtles have deep green coloring, but the individual above has a rare condition: leucism.
An animal with leucism experiences a partial loss of pigmentation.
This often leads to white coloration in splotches on the animal’s skin or fur.
Leucism is not exclusive to turtles; it can be found in horses, cows, cats, dogs, crocodiles, penguins and other species.
Notice the dark color of the turtle’s eyes in the photo—this is one trait that distinguishes leucism from albinism, since leucism does not affect the eyes’ pigmentation.
Albino animals, on the other hand, have pink, red or light blue eyes.

For Australian photographer Jake Wilton, hitting the shutter with just the right timing was critical to achieving this shot.
“Using the surface of the calm water, I captured the striking reflection of the hatchling as it surfaced for air,” Wilton says in a statement.

In Papua New Guinea’s Conflict Islands, conservation efforts have boosted the numbers of turtle hatchlings.
The discovery of this rare leucistic turtle, Wilton adds, “is a testament to the successful turnaround in conservation efforts and the beauty of these endangered creatures.”

Finalist, Filippo Borghi

 

 

One of the Southern Ocean’s most formidable predators, the leopard seal, approaches the camera with its mouth wide open.

Filippo Borghi

“In the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean, just off the coast of Antarctica, I had the opportunity to capture a breathtaking encounter with one of the region’s most formidable predators—the leopard seal,” says Italian photographer Filippo Borghi in a statement.

The leopard seal, sometimes referred to as a sea leopard, is the second-largest species of seal in the Antarctic, behind the southern elephant seal.
Its only natural predator is an orca.
Sea leopards feed on fish, squid, small crustaceans, penguins, smaller seals and even whale carcasses.

Borghi describes his nerves the moment he got the shot.
“I held my breath, my heart racing with a mixture of awe and trepidation, as the seal approached, its spotted coat and powerful jaws seeming suspended in the crystalline waters,” he adds.
“[Its] dark eyes were fixed on mine.”

Finalist, Daisuke Kurashima

 

 

 diver swims through colorful waters off Iwo Jima. 

Daisuke Kurashima

Iwo Jima is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands, a group of three islands in Micronesia governed by Japan.
The effect displayed in the photo above is a product of a special environmental feature of Iwo Jima: hot springs.

“When the water from the hot springs flows into the sea, the shallower the water is, the more red or orange it turns,” Japanese photographer Daisuke Kurashima says in a statement.
“The visible colors in the water vary depending on the concentration of the hot spring’s components, and the appearance is compared to an aurora borealis.”

Finalist, Edwar Herreño Parra

 

Beside the Sharkwater research vessel, which was initially used by the Japanese fishing fleet, swims a whale shark with its distinctive spotted pattern. 

Edwar Herreño Parra

The boat pictured above, aptly named Sharkwater, is a former fishing ship turned research vessel.
Beneath it swims an endangered whale shark.
Whale sharks have distinctive spotted patterns on their backs, which help divers and researchers to photograph and track individuals more easily.

Despite their name, whale sharks are not whales—though they are some of the largest creatures in the ocean.
Whale sharks can weigh up to 30 tons and even grow larger than a school bus.
Like whales, they are filter-feeders, meaning they eat by straining plankton through their gills.

Adult whale sharks do not stay with their young after birth, and only around 10 percent of them make it to adulthood.
However, if they grow to adult size, the sharks enjoy a lifestyle with few predators, meaning they can enjoy a long life of up to 150 years.

Colombian photographer Edwar Herreño Parra describes his moment with the shark on a tagging expedition.
“I stayed in the water with the shark for almost an hour trying to take an image of the endangered species below the scientific vessel.
It all came together, and the moody lighting and the rough sea add to the image’s appeal,” he says in a statement.

Finalist, Kate Jonker

 

  

An octopus peeks curiously out from its hiding spot in South Africa.
Kate Jonker

Octopuses are some of the most physically flexible creatures in all of nature.
Beyond this, the common octopus featured here excels at camouflaging with its surroundings.
The cephalopod achieves this feat through a network of pigment cells called chromatophores just below the surface of its skin.

South African photographer Kate Jonker describes her encounter with the hiding creature in a statement: “This little common octopus was so well camouflaged among the hydroids that I almost missed it.
It would peek out, then hide, lifting its head cautiously.”

Octopuses are quite intelligent—they can complete puzzles, untie knots and open jars.
Interestingly, their intellect is based in a different kind of anatomy than humans’—about two out of three of their neurons are located not in their head, but in their arms.

Jonker adds that she spent about 15 minutes just watching this creature, “noticing its curiosity and caution.
Gradually, it became braver, spending more time observing me and my camera.
Eventually, it allowed me to capture its photo before slipping away beneath her rock.”

Reflecting on the experience of getting the shot, Jonker notes that “moments like these are humbling, reminding us we are visitors in their environment, yet they are willing to share a connection.”

 

Links :

• GeoGraage blog : Image of the week : wildlife photographer of the year ...